Retail readies for PlayStation Move

Our stores are all geared up for the launch of PlayStation Move, and customer excitement is increasing. Lots of our teams have played and enjoyed it already, and this is being passed on when they talk to our customers.As always with a big new hardware launch, there will be lots of activity in our stores, but we are keeping it secret for now. The range of launch titles looks good and will appeal to all kinds of different customers.

John Stanhope – Senior Buying Manager, Games, Tesco

Pre-orders for Move are encouraging, and we expect the device to shift the demographic of PS3 towards our target customers. Obviously we have plans to make sure our customers are exposed to Move at launch and throughout the Christmas period.

Tim Ellis – Head of Games, HMV

Pre-orders are looking very healthy, and with consumer expectations building all the time, we expect a significant upside for the PS3 category as a whole. With Sony’s support we feel there is a great opportunity to capitalise on the levels of interest that are out there for this product, and make it a must-have gift item this Christmas.

Keith Sharpe – Games Buyer, Play.com

Move presents a huge opportunity for the platform and for retail and we’re treating it the same way we would any triple-A release.

We expect it not only to have a big impact at launch but right through the peak trading period since it blends itself to gift purchasing so well. The response we’ve had from customers has been excellent and we’ve even had the Sony demo trailer at our head office to get all our staff educated and enthused about the product.

We’ve done as much as we can to evangelise Move to our database and give it the prominence on site it deserves. The mix of software is excellent, appealing to traditional gamers and non gamers alike, my kids have been having great fun with titles like EyePet and Sports Champions, but it’s the connectivity to MAG and more hardcore games that I’m really looking forward to.

Sarah Jasper – Head of Business Development, The Hut Group

We have had a strong, steady stream of weekly orders for this hardware, and it is in constant high demand from our consumers. Rather than be a key launch performer, I believe a steady momentum of orders will continue right through to Christmas. This is reflected in our site activity, which has been prominent across all of our sites, and focussed more on pre-awareness.

The PlayStation Move software line-up looks great, but personally I’m looking forward to Sports Champions. It is all about tricking myself into doing exercise.

Phil Moore – Sales Director, Grainger Games

We expect PlayStation Move to be one of this Christmas’ must-have gadgets. We have seen Move demonstrated and the playability and interaction is totally immersive and we expect big things from this great piece of kit.

Our pre-orders are very strong and feedback from our stores is that more and more customers are asking about Move and the games that will be released with it.We always support major releases and have already got special activity centred around pre-orders. We are really looking forward to the launch day and it is always exciting to be involved with a product such as this.

There are great titles released at launch that we fully expect to fly off the shelves. Personally, I’m looking forward to Sports Champions as I was blown away by the accuracy and control I could get with the game and it really brings the sports to life.

Jenny Leach – Games Buyer, Asda

We demonstrated Move in the Atrium at Asda house and we had extremely positive feedback from people about how accurate it was and also how much fun it was.We’re expecting a positive impact from the launch as it’s going to open up the PlayStation 3 to a new audience. Not only does Move cater for core gamers but also for casual gamers, which obviously fits well with the Asda customer base.

We have merchandised the games department to incorporate Move and we’ve given it dedicated space within the PlayStation bay. We’re also going to be demonstrating Move in a number of our key stores at launch.

Personally, I like all the mini-games that are in Sports Champions and Start the Party but I’m also looking forward to being able to use Move with Killzone 3 when it comes out next year.

Igor Cipolletta – CEO, ShopTo

We are very excited by Move and having seen the marketing that Sony have planned for launch and through the holiday period, we are sure it will be high up on many Christmas lists. Pre-orders are steadily building for launch day and Move is set to be one of our best-selling peripheral products. As a retailer that only deals with new stock it’s always great to get new product, especially hardware as this helps drive software sales as well.

Interest is steadily building amongst the gaming community and pre-orders are quite strong, however, I think most of the general public have yet to be introduced to the concept. Hopefully this will be remedied by Sony’s marketing push.

In terms of what we are doing, we already have a dedicated PlayStation Move page showcasing all the products available. We are also going to be running print and online marketing campaigns including emails, PR and few other ideas that we are still working on.

As for games, Sports Champions, LittleBigPlanet 2 and The Shoot are current office favourites but the customer choice at the moment has to be Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition.

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